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The Isle of Skye is home to a vibrant creative community of artists, designers and makers, and we love to collaborate when we can. So we were delighted when we were invited to take part in a joint textile art and weaving exhibition at Aros, the cultural centre in Skye’s capital Portree.

All four of us taking part are very different, but share a passion for weaving and deep connection to the landscape around us. To celebrate the opening of the exhibition on 4 March, we asked those taking part to give us an insight into their working methods and inspiration.

Maggie Williams is a hand weaver who lives and works on a windswept croft at Ellishadder, on Skye’s stunning north-east coast. “I take my inspiration from my surroundings,” says Maggie. “The play of light on inky seas, the ever-changing weather, lichen encrusted rock, the delicate tapestry of wildflowers on machair, undulating lines of ancient lazy beds, or the stark beauty of the rugged landscape – all these influences can be found in my designs.”

Maggie weaves on a 16 shaft dobby loom using high quality natural fibres, predominantly merino and lambswool. She adds: “By using traditional time-honoured skills and craftsmanship, I aim to create timeless, heirloom quality pieces, produced in a sustainable and ethically responsible manner.” As well as weaving Maggie runs the Ellishadder Gallery and Tearoom, where you can find her work alongside that of other Skye artists and makers.

Chris Leighton started weaving almost by accident. “I began when I inherited a loom and some wool,” he explains. “I was drawn to tapestry weaving, and now use this method in all my work. I’ve taken ideas from Turkish rugs and kilims, and later from weaving I saw in Bulgaria which led me to new techniques.” He adds: “I’ve also been involved in a quilting group that meets regularly in Portree. That inspired me to interpret patchwork into weaving with additional embellishments and by adapting the warp.”

Chris weaves using a rigid heddle loom. ‘It’s versatile, easy to dress and portable,” he says. “It’s quite old and has become warped – no pun intended – but I’ve got quite used to it so I’ll be sticking with it for the foreseeable future.”

Caroline Dear is an artist who trained as an architect. Living in Skye since 1986, she has exhibited internationally and received numerous awards. “I like responding to particular landscapes and habitats, and make work which highlights our changing relationship with the natural world,” says Caroline. “I am interested in structures made using plants and traditional techniques. I use simple early techniques such as rope making and looping to create cloth like pieces. I am excited by the transformation of, say, grass, from thin small loose stems into a loose flexible structure with an individual character, strength and atmosphere.”

You can see a gallery of Caroline’s work and find out more on her website.

For us at Skye Weavers, the land and landscape are both a source of inspiration and raw material. From seashore to mountain top, the colours and textures of our surroundings all make their way into our designs. We’re particularly proud of our Skye Wool range, which is made entirely from wool from local farmers and crofters. Whether it’s throws or scarves, baby blankets or lengths of tweed, we hope that those who buy our woven products will take with them a tangible connection to our very special island.

We weave on a bicycle pedal-powered loom in a small weaving shed next to our old croft house. We use a double-width Bonas-Griffith rapier loom, similar to those used by Harris Tweed weavers but adapted by us to create a wider range of fabrics. Find out about the journey from sheep to tweed on our story page.

The exhibition continues until 29 March and is free to enter. To find out about many of the other artists and creatives on Skye visit the Art Skye website.

There’s lots we love about our work at Skye Weavers. But one of the most satisfying things must be when a roll of tweed comes back from the finishers. Especially when it’s a new design.

So it was very exciting to take delivery of three new tweeds this week – more on that later. It got us talking about what makes tweed so special. It’s warm, natural and hardwearing of course, as well as extremely versatile. But what is tweed exactly?

A bit of tweed history

Collins Dictionary defines tweed simply as ‘a thick woollen cloth, often woven from different coloured threads’. It’s said that the name originates in a 19th century misunderstanding. A manufacturer in the Scottish Borders sent some samples of ‘tweel’ (Scots for twill) fabric to a London merchant, who mis-read the word as ‘tweed’. Perhaps he was thinking of the River Tweed – but whatever the reason, a fortuitous rebranding was born.

People in the Scottish islands had been weaving woollen fabric at home for their own use for centuries. But it was much further south, in the Borders, that the tweed manufacturing industry developed during the 18th century Industrial Revolution. The English well-to-do started to discover this hardwearing fabric on their hunting trips to Scotland. And when in 1848 Prince Albert designed a tweed exclusively for the Royal family’s Balmoral Estate, the fashion really took off. Aristocratic estate owners began designing their own ‘Estate tweeds’, often introducing blended colours for camouflage.

This photograph shows Donald Urquhart, the head stalker on the Inverewe estate in the late 19th century. (Photo: Highland Photographic Archive, High Life Highland)

The most famous of all tweeds is of course Harris Tweed. The iconic cloth originated in the mid-19th century after Harris landowner Lady Dunmore had her family tartan made in tweed by local weavers. Recognising its potential she helped promote it in London, where it became much sought after. In 1909 the Board of Trade granted Harris Tweed protected status to save it from imitations and ensure consistent standards. The cloth’s authenticity is today guaranteed by the Harris Tweed Authority, established in 1993 by Act of Parliament, which ensures that only genuine Harris Tweed can be stamped with the distinctive Orb trademark.

Today there are around 170 Harris Tweed weavers, who work in their own homes across the Outer Hebrides. They use manually powered looms, either the treadle-powered Hattersley or the more modern double-width pedal-powered Bonas-Griffith. Together they produce over a million metres of cloth a year. At Skye Weavers we use Bonas-Griffith looms too, but we don’t produce tweed in quite that quantity!

Tweed with a twist

We also differ from Harris Tweed weavers in that we’ve modified our looms so that, besides tweed, we can weave scarves, throws, shawls and different types of cloth. We love to experiment and push our equipment – and our imagination – to the limits.

For our new tweed we’ve taken two of our favourite patterns, windowpane and diamond twill, and introduced some punchy new colours. While we love natural shades and earthy tweeds, it’s great sometimes to have a more vibrant palette. For the diamond twill we used a bright pink and turquoise weft (horizontal) yarn with specks of other colours.

In coming weeks we’ll be making these tweeds into soft furnishings, accessories and garments – watch this space. Meanwhile you can buy it by the metre for your own projects. Just as we’re inspired to invent new patterns we hope our tweeds will inspire you too. We love to hear what people have made with our tweed. Share your ideas and designs with us on Facebook and Instagram – and don’t forget to tag us @skyeweavers.

While the rest of us were taking down the Christmas tree and planning our Veganuary menus (you weren’t?), the country’s dedicated style-setters had other things on their mind. Because the first week of January is also London Fashion Week Men’s – the bi-annual menswear showcase that reveals what’s going to be hot next season.

And the big news – caps are on the catwalk. One leading label presented an entire collection inspired by Peaky Blinders, the cult BBC drama about peaked flat-cap wearing gangsters. Style-watchers at GQ report that David Beckham, no less, is a big flat cap fan. And as British Fashion Council ambassadorial president, Beckham should know a thing or two. We’re sure he would love our own version of the classic eight-piece design, made naturally from 100% pure new wool Skye Weavers tweed.

Our own caps are sewn for us by traditional British company Olney Headwear. The firm has been making hats and caps for more than 100 years and is owned by the fourth generation of the Olney family. They are based in the Bedfordshire town of Luton, the centre of UK hat making for nearly three centuries. Making headwear is a skilled and specialised business, and we wanted to choose the very best professionals to work with. We were really impressed by Olney’s craftsmanship and eye for detail when we went to visit them.

Skilled pattern-cutter at work, Olney Headwear

Pattern template for our Baker Boy Caps

Moulds used to make felt hats. It was fascinating to have a look around the workshop.

All this got us looking into the history of the cap. We call ours a baker boy but the eight-piece is known by various other monikers including the newsboy, paperboy, cheese-cutter, Gatsby, Irish and cabbie cap, as well as the peaky blinder. The cap might be a modern classic but it’s been around for hundreds of years. It’s said that caps derived from the Scots bonnets and the flat caps worn by Irish farmers in the 14th century. Mass immigration to North America in the 19th and early 20th centuries helped popularise the cap in the USA. In Britain it became part of the working man’s uniform but was also adopted by the aristocracy for hunting and shooting on their country estates. And it seems the cap also came in handy in the days before motorcycle helmets!

Harris Tweed is famous the world over. But did you know that Skye once had its own cottage-based weaving industry? An exhibition and events programme next week in Portnalong, near Talisker on Skye’s west coast, will tell its intriguing story. And as proud inheritors of this local tradition we’re thrilled to be involved.

‘Port-na-Skye’ – The New Harris Tweed?

Portnalong and its neighbouring townships of Fiskavaig and Fearnilea were created after World War I when the Board of Agriculture bought land to offer to people wanting to make a new life. Over 60 families moved there, most of them weavers from overcrowded townships on the Isles of Harris and Lewis. Small weaving sheds were provided on the crofts, and spinning, knitting and weaving became important sources of income for the settlers.

Port-na-Skye tweed, as it was known, was sold to passing trade and tourists who arrived by boat and later by motor car. Production methods became more sophisticated with the introduction of Hattersley Looms, and many different colours and patterns were made until the early 1970s. Although Port-na-Skye failed to enjoy the commercial success of Harris Tweed there remains a strong interest in spinning and weaving within the local community to this day.

From Lamb to Loom

This postcard shows Mary Ferguson weaving tweed in her croft at Portnalong in Skye in the mid-1920s. Image source: www.ambaile.org.uk

Tweed woven by Euan MacLeod at no. 14 Portnalong in the mid-1960s.

Getting the fleece from lamb to loom was a time-consuming process for the Portnalong weavers. After shearing, the fleece would be scoured in the stream and dyed in large pans over the fire, using local plants and roots. It was then hand-carded to sort the fibres, spun into yarn on a spinning wheel and finally wound onto cones ready for weaving.

The cloth was woven on a large wooden floor loom or a smaller table-top loom, and taken by men to be washed in the stream. It was finished by the women, who sat around a large table where the soaked tweed was rhythmically thumped to shrink and soften the fabric. The finishing process, also known as ‘waulking’, was hard graft but also a great social occasion with lots of gossip and songs to keep the rhythm and lighten the work.

Living Tradition

While our singing is best avoided at Skye Weavers, we otherwise like to keep local traditions alive. Although our looms use a different mechanism to those used in Portnalong in the early 20th century, they are still powered manually, in our case by bicycle pedals. And while waulking is no longer the communal activity it was, our skilled finishers – Schofield in the Scottish Borders – are long established experts with an attention to quality that is second to none. (And we’re sure they enjoy a gossip in their spare time too.) You can follow our own tweed-making journey here.

We’re especially proud of our Skye Wool range using local fleeces. This year we have something extra special as part of the ‘Lamb to Loom’ exhibition programme: Sgioba Luaidh Inbhirchluaidh, the Inverclyde Waulking Group, will be singing waulking songs while finishing some of our Skye Wool tweed in the Minginish Village Hall. Come and watch them at work/waulk on Thursday 28 – Saturday 30 June, and join a Thursday afternoon workshop.

Ethical fashion is trending right now. Today, more and more of us are asking what impact our clothes have on people and on the planet. There’s a growing market for clothes with a conscience – whether that’s up-cycled, organic, natural or Fairtrade. ‘Buy less, care more’ is becoming the green fashionista’s mantra.

A driving force in this is Fashion Revolution – a global movement for ethical and sustainable fashion. Self-styled ‘pro-fashion protestors’, Fashion Revolution celebrate fashion as a positive influence while also scrutinising industry practices and raising awareness of pressing issues.

Today we’re joining them in marking the start of Fashion Revolution Week. The Week falls on the anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, which killed 1138 people and injured many more in 2013. All round the globe people will be asking brands #whomademyclothes and demanding greater transparency in the fashion supply chain.

Our ethical commitment

From a renewable raw material to pedal-powered production, at Skye Weavers we’ve always been committed to making our business as sustainable as possible.

We know #whomademyclothes – it’s us! From warping to sewing, we keep our production processes in-house as far as possible. This means that we know exactly who created each garment, throw, scarf or tweed. It also keeps weaving traditions alive and provides local employment and training. When we do work with partner manufacturers we select them carefully, for example working with social enterprise Kalopsia Collective on our bags and ties.

Keeping it local. We work with suppliers in Scotland, northern England and Wales. From wool mills and finishers to the people who weave our labels, we avoid large-scale faceless corporations even if it means we have to absorb higher manufacturing costs. We often visit these suppliers personally, building up a relationship and developing a satisfying creative partnership.

Wool, naturally. We use a sustainable raw material. Our woolly friends generously grow a new fleece for us each year, making it the ultimate renewable resource. What’s more, wool is biodegradable (not that we expect you to throw away your Skye Weavers garments of course). We even use natural dyes in some of our products, and source some of our wool from local farms on Skye.

Love not landfill. We create high quality products that you will cherish, not chuck away at the end of the season.

People have been snapping up our green diamond tweed so fast that unfortunately we’re out of stock. But don’t go green with envy – we’ve been pedalling fast so there’s more on its way. Your can pre-order a length of the tweed here, or sign up to our newsletter if you would like to receive an email when the cushions are available online.

Or if you can’t wait, why not check out our Skye Wool collection for something ultra-local with the minimum of wool miles!

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